Becoming a Strategic Business Partner in IT Transformation

The client, part of an international corporation with around 15,000 employees and numerous subsidiaries, faced a strategically significant decision: the group's in-house IT service provider, with €25 million in internal revenue and 6,600 users across more than 480 locations, was increasingly perceived by internal customers as administrative rather than a strategic business partner. The goal of the project was to redefine this role and select the right external transformation partner on an objective, robust basis.

Challenge

• The tool and service landscape was highly heterogeneous due to numerous acquisitions, comprising 40 to 50 individual services.
• The IT service provider's Target Operating Model showed inefficiencies and structures that had grown organically over time, and pricing for service offerings no longer reflected the market.

Against this backdrop, it was necessary not only to rethink the future role of the IT service provider within the corporation, but also to objectively and transparently select a suitable external transformation partner from a broad, complex provider market.

Solution

Support for IT management as a strategic PMO across three phases, acting as the sole single point of contact for all external parties.

• Target vision & analysis: Derivation of the target vision for the future role of the IT service provider within the corporation, developed with IT leadership in joint strategy workshops. A high-level as-is analysis of the starting situation, customer interfaces, and the service catalog served as the basis for defining the scope of the IT transformation project.
• RFP process and partner selection: From around 50 potential consulting partners, the selection was narrowed down through a multi-stage process to a shortlist of 4 providers. A purpose-built scoring model with 16 criteria across 5 categories (max. 75 points) made every proposal objectively comparable. Provider questions were coordinated and answered, proposal presentations were moderated, and final negotiations with the preferred provider were conducted. The recommendation was submitted to the steering board along with a complete decision package.
• Steering during the transformation: Support for project setup (team structure, scope of services, analysis formats and focus areas, timeline, change management) — including the active integration of compelling approaches from the providers that were not selected. As the overarching strategic PMO, the consultant took on realignment, quality assurance, and change management across several strategic initiatives, as well as select procedural work packages during implementation.

Benefits for the Customer

Outlook

The successful partner selection evolved into an ongoing steering role throughout the entire transformation. As the overarching PMO, the consultant has since been coordinating several of the corporation's strategic initiatives, ensuring consistent realignment, quality assurance, and change support across project boundaries.